New dance festival aims to put spring in your feet

Dancer/choreographer Nicholas Leichter will be featured at the SpringUp… (Quinn Batson, CONTRIBUTED…)

March 16, 2013|By Steve Siegel, Special to The Morning Call

Aspiring Lehigh Valley ballerinas with visions of sugarplums dancing in their heads have a variety of options in which to explore their dreams. The Ballet Guild of the Lehigh Valley, Repertory Dance Theater and numerous small local studios all offer dance instruction and performance opportunities for pre-professional dancers.

But for more experienced local dancers over the age of 18, that Nutcracker Prince is much more difficult to find.

Professional area dancers wanting to further their education and training, or seeking performance opportunities, usually have to travel to New York or Philadelphia.

That was the situation up until 2009, when professional dancers Alexandra Reekie and Kathleen Bibalo formed the Lehigh Valley Dance Exchange, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the development of the professional dance scene in the Lehigh Valley. Reekie, a Muhlenberg College graduate with a degree in dance and media communications, saw the need for a local organization that would cater to the more mature dancers not being served by local institutions.

"We wanted to create an organization that would facilitate opportunities for professional area dancers to perform, create choreographic opportunities, network and educate each other," says Reekie, executive director.

"Part of our research was to look at companies all across America who unite their local dance communities, and figure out what makes them so successful. We wanted to do the same thing to unite the Lehigh Valley's dance professionals by building a thriving dance hub. It's the first organization of its kind in the area."

In addition to offering education and performance opportunities, Reekie found that most successful dance organizations featured a yearly festival which combined master classes with performances showcasing both local and national talent. On March 22 and 23, the Lehigh Valley Dance Exchange, in partnership with the local Monarch Dance Company will present its inaugural dance festival, SpringUP, at Northampton Community College in Bethlehem Township.

The festival will welcome guest artists from New York City, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, as well as feature performances by local dancers and choreographers. Although the LVDE has presented dance performances at the Touchstone Theatre in Bethlehem and, more recently, in the casual ambience of the Allentown Brew Works, SpringUP is its most ambitious project to date.

"When we first came up with the idea for a festival, we wanted to start small scale, then grow it over the years into something more elaborate. We teamed up with Tabatha Robinson-Scott, a member of the dance faculty at Northampton Community College and artistic director of the Monarch Dance Company. It ended up being a great partnership. We were able to get funding not only from the Lehigh Valley Arts Council and the Pennsylvania Partners in the Arts, but from NCC as well, all who worked together to create this festival," Reekie says.

The festival boasts two sets of performances at NCC's Lipkin Theatre and a full day of workshops. A Guest Artist concert on the evening of March 22 will showcase established regional choreographers in a wide variety of styles. Some will bring dancers to perform their pieces, while others will perform their own work. "Professional dancers come from such different areas of concentration that we wanted to offer a bunch of styles, something for everyone," says Reekie.

Headlined by Nicholas Leichter, a renowned New York City-based jazz dancer and choreographer, the March 22 concert will feature everything from breakdance to tap dancing. Alfred Guzman, who along with Reekie is a dance instructor at the Dance Fusion Performing Arts Studio in Fogelsville, will demonstrate hip-hop and break dancing. The Pittsburgh-based Continuum Dance Theater focuses on a more musical theater style of dance, while the Monarch Dance Company runs the gamut of contemporary dance, with a focus on Afro-American dance.

Dance companies and choreographers who might not be as well-known will be featured in an Emerging Artist concert on Saturday, March 23, with performances by the J. Dance Company of Sellersville (named after its artistic director, Jessica Dull), a solo performance by LVDE co-director Jessica Marino, and a pointe piece by Muhlenberg College dance student Kelsey Hutchinson. Melisa Keiser, a member of Reekie's own Fusion Dance Company, will perform two pieces, and there'll be a work by the Northampton Dance Ensemble, under the artistic direction of Robinson-Scott.

Daytime master classes on Saturday, March 23, open to all experienced dancers, are free of charge. "All you have to do is enroll," Reekie says. "With all our funding, we can offer these for free, which is kind of unheard of for this level of instruction."